RCMP Cpl. Graeme Matthews leaves the courtroom after giving evidence in the Surrey Six murder trial in Vancouver October 15, 2013. He video-taped suite 1505 on Oct 20, 2007, after the six murders.Gerry Kahrmann
/ PNG

Friends, family, witnesses, and reporters file into courtroom 20 at B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2013 for day two of the Surrey Six gangland shootings.Jenelle Schneider
/ PNG

Friends, family, witnesses, and reporters file into courtroom 20 at B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2013 for day two of the Surrey Six gangland shootings.Jenelle Schneider
/ PNG

Tracy Carothers and with husband Norman file into courtroom 20 at B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2013 for day two of the Surrey Six gangland shootings trial. Both were witnesses.Jenelle Schneider
/ PNG

Norman Carothers, the first witness at the Surrey Six murder trial of Cody Haevischer, Matthew Johnston and Michael Le waits to enter B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver, October 1, 2013. The ex building manager found the six dead bodies in the Balmoral Tower Apartments in Surrey six years ago.Nick Procaylo
/ PNG

The Schellenberg family exit court room 20 inside B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver, September 30, 2013. Three accused Matthew Johnston, Michael Le and Cody Haevischer are facing trial for killing six people in a Surrey highrise.Arlen Redekop
/ PNG

The Schellenberg family exit court room 20 inside B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver, September 30, 2013. Three accused Matthew Johnston, Michael Le and Cody Haevischer are facing trial for killing six people in a Surrey highrise.Arlen Redekop
/ PNG

Eileen Mohan pauses for a moment as she speaks to the media outside the British Columbia Supreme Court in Vancouver, B.C. Monday, Sept, 30, 2013. Mohan's son Chris was a victim in a 2007 Surrey murder which left six dead.Jonathan Hayward
/ THE CANADIAN PRESS

People line up to be screened to enter the British Columbia Supreme Court in Vancouver, Monday, Sept. 30, 2013. The trial of the 2007 Surrey mass murder that left six dead opened in Vancouver Monday.Jonathan Hayward
/ THE CANADIAN PRESS

Eileen Mohan pauses for a moment as she speaks to the media outside the British Columbia Supreme Court in Vancouver, B.C. Monday, Sept, 30, 2013. Mohan's son Chris was a victim in a 2007 Surrey murder which left six dead.Jonathan Hayward
/ THE CANADIAN PRESS

The Schellenberg family exit court room 20 inside B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver, September 30, 2013. Three accused Matthew Johnston, Michael Le and Cody Haevischer are facing trial for killing six people in a Surrey highrise.Arlen Redekop
/ PNG

METRO VANCOUVER — Within days of the Oct. 19, 2007 slaughter of six people at Surrey’s Balmoral Tower, police were zeroing in on their suspects.

While charges were not laid in the Surrey Six killings until April 2009, evidence at the murder trial of Cody Haevischer, Matthew Johnston and Michael Le indicates how quickly police had identified suspects.

By the afternoon of Oct. 21, investigators had established surveillance on a black BMW linked to Haevischer that the Crown submits was used by the killers to drive to the Balmoral two days earlier. It was seized and searched two days later.

And on the evening of Oct. 22, Haevischer’s residence in the Stanley apartment building in Surrey was raided by an Emergency Response Team, according to admissions at the trial.

Officers who were part of the searches of both the Haevischer apartment and the BMW testified at the trial Tuesday.

Retired Mountie Ken Griffin testified about a black handgun found in a bag inside a closet in Haevischer’s suite, as well as ammunition and shell casings in unit 1601 at the Stanley.

Griffin was also asked in cross-examination about the graphic crime scene photos he took in the death suite of the bodies of Corey and Michael Lal, Ryan Bartolomeo, Eddie Narong, Christopher Mohan and Ed Schellenberg.

Also testifying Monday was Cpl. Graeme Matthews, who examined and photographed the BMW after it was seized.

Matthews also videotaped the bodies in suite 1505 on the evening of Oct. 20, 2007 once police had obtained a search warrant for the Balmoral unit.

Matthews explained his video scene-by-scene after Crown prosecutor Matthew Stacey warned the public gallery about the disturbing video.

Eileen Mohan, whose son was an innocent victim caught in the slaughter, again left the courtroom as the video began.

She was the only family member at the high-profile murder trial as it entered its third week.

Matthews said he arrived with Griffin as part of the forensic identification team.

After Griffin photographed the crime scene, he began videotaping, Matthews testified.

The video included close-up images of bullet holes above Bartolomeo’s ear and in the back of his head; of Michael Lal’s bloody right hand and then his face, eyes slightly open; and of a shell casing on the back of Mohan’s leg as he lies face-down in his own blood.

Matthews panned over to the second group of bodies, lined up in a row with their heads close to the glass fireplace Schellenberg was servicing.

The video showed Schellenberg on the left with a black hood partly still covering his head and blood coming from his left ear.

Narong was beside him with a blue piece of cloth wrapped around his head and Corey Lal was to his right with a black hood covering his entire head.

There were shell casings near the feet of all three, as well as a bullet near Schellenberg’s foot.

Later Monday, RCMP Staff-Sgt. David Teboul described arriving at the Balmoral on Oct. 19, 2007 and walking through the apartment wearing protective clothing.

“It was a scene that was, it’s safe to say, nothing short of horrific even for a seasoned investigator,” he said.

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